In May 1940, between 300,000 and 400,000 British troops were trapped between German forces and the ocean. As they attempted to evacuate the beaches of Dunkirk they fell victim to German Luftwaffe, the German equivalent of the American Air Force. German planes focused on bombing the evacuating ships and gunning down men on the beach. British battlecruisers were nearby the beach, however, they were unable to land on the shallow beach to carry the men to safety. The smaller ships used to shuttle men back and forth between the beach and the battlecruisers were dwindling and this led to the deployment of civilian vessels from England. This historic endeavor was codenamed Operation Dynamo.
Christopher Nolan’s new film, Dunkirk, follows the struggle of a few groups of men. The primary group is comprised of a band of men trying to get off the beach by any means necessary, portrayed by Fionn Whitehad, Aneurin Barnard, and Harry Styles. The second group is a civilian boat on the way to Dunkirk to rescue troops. The boat’s crew is made up of Mr. Dawson, played by Mark Rylance, his son, Tom Glynn-Carney and his son’s friend, Barry Keoghan. The third group we follow is a pair of spitfire pilots, Collins, played by Jack Lowden, and Farrier, played by Tom Hardy. The intertwined storylines conceived by Nolan provides an intense and immersive look at the historic evacuation of Dunkirk that was a pivotal moment of World War II.
